Born in the factory area of the city of Higashi-Osaka as the eldest of three boys, I was a typically mischievous boy, who always had cuts and bruises. Since I suffered from various illnesses, including asthmatic bronchitis, I had to go the doctor a lot during my childhood.

After going to a strict boys’ high school, I enjoyed my college life, organizing events for the annual campus festival. I also studied in San Francisco and wrote a graduation thesis on Japanese-style management and American-style management.

I started working as a sales engineer of CAD/CAM (computer-aided design and manufacturing) for a machine trading company in Tokyo. While learning about programming and numerical control machines, I visited various manufacturing places, mainly in the eastern parts of Japan. These experiences became the base of managing the present company.

I was proud of my hometown of Osaka and considered it being as big as Tokyo, but life in Tokyo as an office worker made me realize that Osaka was just a regional city.

In 1989, my brother and I joined my father’s small ironworks. My idealistic outlook often came into conflict with the more realistic ideas of my father and brother. For example, I thought it was important to improve the appearance of the workspace and to make it a "clean ironworks," so that we could visually demonstrate the quality of our products to our clients. But the two craftsmen – my father and brother – didn't think it should be a high priority.

In 1995, after my father had a heart attack, he turned over the management of the company to me. In 2000, I became the president.

We had two major turning points. One concerned the subcontractor position. Twenty years ago, we had 10 customers, and one of which accounted for 70 percent of the sales. Today, our customers make up more than 400 companies. The other was our three relocations. When planning our first relocation, in 1996, we discovered that a crucial element in our bellows-making machines was immovable. My experience at the machine trading company helped me come up with ways to design a new machine, which we assembled together. The new machine proved to be twice as productive, which improved the company’s business performance and led to a second relocation in 2004. In 2007, we moved to Keihanna Science City, a famous research and development center extending across Kyoto, Osaka and Nara.

In cooperation with universities, we continue to tackle the subjects of corrosion and fatigue that determine the life of metals and ultimately aim to create pipeline solutions. Also, as an ecologically conscious company, we use solar power, rooftop gardening with intelligent watering control systems, biotopes and a rainwater recycling system. And we aspire to develop further methods for our carbon offsetting.